With the ever-increasing miniaturization of electronic equipment, such as audio and video equipment, mobile telephones, computer and other equipment, it becomes increasingly difficult to design electrical circuitry. One area of such difficulty is electrical switches or switch assemblies. An electrical switch assembly may be used as a normally open switch with switch contacts designed to be closed upon actuating the switch, or the switch assembly may be a normally closed switch with the contacts designed to be opened when the switch is actuated.
Heretofore, electrical switch assemblies have caused problems in designing compact or miniaturized circuitry for such equipment as described above, because the switch assemblies were comprised of multiple components. These problems are magnified when the switch components are used for functions other than their switching functions, such as retaining a component such as a stereo plug in the switch assembly. The present invention is directed to solving these problems and satisfying a need for an extremely simple and cost-effective switch assembly.